


Dodge, dodge; hit!

by ArcadeGhostAdventurer



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: A lot of gaming and art in games talk., Art, Gaming, Getting Together, Identity Reveal, M/M, Secret Identity, Steve is a good gamer, Steve is good at gaming, The Avengers is a game, Tony Stark's love of making games, and is also an art teacher., mmorpg au, whatever that is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:00:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28264293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcadeGhostAdventurer/pseuds/ArcadeGhostAdventurer
Summary: There is a saying in the game development community, “Devs are the best at playing their own game; that is, until one hour after the launch.”Steve is the definite proof of that statement.Steve starts a new game. Discovers Iron Man is not the AI he thought he is. Feelings happen.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 17
Kudos: 89





	Dodge, dodge; hit!

**Author's Note:**

> Jess hello can you believe it!!! Half a year later I can finally give you One Gift. 
> 
> This was supposed to be written long ago. And then the pandemic happened. And then real life happened. And I'm only now getting back on my feet. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. BUT it's done now!!!! I did take some liberties with your prompt. I hope you still like it. ( ´ ▽ ` ).｡ｏ♡
> 
> AND THE REST OF YOU!! Uh... I hope you also like it. IDK. Here, have a gaming and art centric fic.

There is a saying in the game development community, “Devs are the best at playing their own game; that is, until one hour after the launch.” 

Steve is the definite proof of that statement.

The dream of being a pro at anything is long gone. Not that his reaction time is lacking but his back, it just doesn’t want him to sit straight for too long. Or at all. Never did. I do it for fun, Steve says to himself, slashing through players and NPCs alike in whatever competitive game or community event he finds himself drawn to. Not to prove anything. Really. I do it for fun.

Thousands of hours he buried into World of Warcraft and likes beg to differ though. 

He can figure out the openings in the attacks and defences of any opponent under five minutes. If it’s an AI, even shorter. He categorizes playing styles, weapon and armor choices, tactics and terrain in an almost tangible separate folder from the rest of his brain. In another life, he could have been a war hero maybe, a true tactical mastermind.

Alas, he’s an art teacher with scoliosis. And his love for games did spurr his interest in art and character design. It did open a new world to him, in which he built the career he loves now. Still...

When he’s home, in front of the computer with a posture that would make orthopedicians cry, he’s TheCaptain. In the player communities, he’s kind of a big name. It’s not that he engages in the chats a lot. He knows firsthand how nasty they get. Still, everyone knows shit’s about to go down once TheCaptain logs in.

Steve plays with the kind of precision you wouldn’t expect even from a pre-rendered cutscene. And so, it’s not really surprising that he gets to the famous last boss of The Avengers, breaking records left and right. The Iron Man. 

He had gotten there last night after a couple of hours of grind and left the game there, not wanting to mess with his chances because his back decided to cramp halfway through the fight. He isn’t underleveled. He’s got every single item and engraving and bonus that is rumored to help with fighting the boss. Yet, here he is, looking at the fight arena door with trepidation.

He’s got one shot. One opportunity. Mom’s spaghetti. Whatever.

Iron Man is the only reason Steve had started this game. And now, here he is.

When Stark Industries had decided to get into the MMORPG scene, no one had expected them to actually succeed. Ex-firearms-turned-green-energy company, coming out with a game for a rapidly declining genre. Not exactly the best business move.

Steve had followed the news about The Avengers, but he hadn’t really planned on getting into the game. Tony Stark had given several interviews about how much he liked these kinds of games when he was younger. About the thrilling sense of anonymity but still being connected to a community… It had seemed like the game was something he was truly excited about. 

It had been a little cringy for Steve to watch the interviews where the usual magazine reporters who knew jack shit about games tried to make sense of a billionaire’s love for something they saw so menial. 

Now though, a year after it’s release, it’s very easy to say that the game is a success. Buttery smooth servers, secret nooks and crannies to every level area, a lively world, engaging and evolving combat, several branches of stories along with sandbox servers, constant content updates… It is the online RPG every player dreamed of. 

Still, the most compelling part of the game is the last main story mission, the last boss of the game: Iron Man. 

A year after the release and still, no one has been able to beat him.

And Steve is about to try exactly that. For the first time. Ever.

At this point, Iron Man is already a legend. Videos and tutorials and walkthrough ideas on how to beat him, conspiracy theories, praises to Tony Stark’s AI building capabilities are all over the internet. Everything that can be said about the boss fight has already been said, every tip has been given. And still, no one has been able to beat him.

Steve both knows everything and well… Nothing.

Iron Man comes “alive”- or more like online, at specific hours every day. Only a single player can fight him at one time. There is a waiting list. Every fight goes different. Every fight Iron Man has different tactics, different dialogues; sometimes even different visuals, making his hitbox larger or smaller.

If this is the kind of artificial intelligence Tony Stark can come up with, Steve doesn’t want to know just how the inside of the man’s mind is. 

Then, suddenly, there is a ding in his ears. 

The door opens, and TheCaptain is let in. The fight starts.

\---

“Ooh! That’s a cool one! I forgot that one was even in the game. Did you know that was one of the first attack power-ups ever created?”

Steve has been fighting, he has actually been fighting for almost three hours now. His hand is cramping. His back is killing him. His health potions are gone and he only has about 15% of his health left. He checks out his mana meter refilling at an alarmingly slow rate. He cannot get another hit. He cannot. He’ll die.

And oh God, his back. His fucking back.

The worst part is, Iron Man doesn’t stop talking. It had been what threw Steve off for the first half of the fight. Iron Man doesn’t seem to have pre-existing dialogue. He responds to Steve.

“Ah!” He said the first time Steve walked through the arena doors, “A worthy challenger appears!”

“Yea, yea,” had responded Steve, more to himself, “You tell that to every challenger I bet.”

And then the Iron Man had laughed, laughed and said, “Well, maybe that was too cliche, even for me. I do like myself a feisty challenger though.”

Now, three hours later, Steve still has no idea if the thing can actually discern things about his fighting style from their conversation or if this is just a way of messing with his flow. He doesn’t even use the microphone normally, he doesn’t know if he forgot it on or if the boss fight overrides things like that.

All he knows is that this has been the most fun boss battle of his life and he will most certainly die in the next couple of minutes. Who knows when it will be his turn to fight Iron Man again. He’s been having so much fun but a slow realization dawns on him as he realizes his time with the boss is coming to an end; the fight hasn’t been fun just because of the incredible challenge of it.

Something as responsive as Iron Man is just… Fun to mess with.

So, Steve thinks, why don’t I just have fun. He stops trying to calculate his chances to get in another hit and formulates the places where he can take cover. He just wants to talk to Iron Man, just a little bit more. And he finds himself genuinely curious about what he will say. Iron Man is an AI. A game AI. He can’t be that good. Not at everything at the same time.

If Steve can focus on only hiding, he can create the time to Google some strategies about messing with chatbots. He is scrolling through the search results when the Iron Man gets bored.

“Are you there Captain? Hello! You seem online still. This wouldn’t be the first time someone rage quitted to be honest but you didn’t seem like-”

“I’m Googling stuff.”

Iron Man laughs, “Well, uh, shouldn’t you have done that before the fight?”

“I am not,” Steve trails off, looking at the article about the Lovelace test. Yep, this is it. This will be fun, “How- How many attacks do you have?” 

“Base shots? Thirty six?” 

Yep. And Steve knows all of them, “Hit me with something different.”

“What?”

Steve knows Iron Man won’t be able to do it, he can recognize patterns, he can rework what he knows, but he cannot create something new from scratch. The fact that he understood what Steve is asking for is an accomplishment in itself. But he cannot create something new. Not without a human behind the wheel.

“Uh… Alright,” Iron Man drawls, “different how?”

That, Steve doesn’t expect but also, he realizes he doesn’t know himself. Different how? 

“Make them… Hexagonal? Uh- Whiplashy?” he cringes inwardly.

“Is that for fetish reasons? Doesn’t DeviantArt already have that?”

Aha, deviation tactics, typical AI, “I have been here for three hours, I want to go out in style.”

“Look Cap, not to underplay your accomplishment but some people have been where you are now for more than six hours.”

Steve’s character twitches from left to right behind the rock he’s hiding, “Well, I have scoliosis. I either die now or I will actually die because of my back.”

There is a pause, “Are you- Are you serious?”

“Yes?” Steve has to remind himself at that moment, that Iron Man is an AI and can’t really think about the implications of that. Hell, he can’t think. Unless someone has coded that into him, which seems pretty unlikely, still…

“Cap your log says you’ve had more than seven hour long active game sessions.”

Steve balks, “Did you just- Did you hack my game files?”

“Look all I’m saying is that that can’t be healthy is all.”

“Maybe I’m lying?” 

Iron Man sputters and at that moment Steve has a dawning suspicion that he might not actually be an AI. 

Iron Man doesn’t let up, “Why would you lie about having scoliosis. I- You know what? Alright, here you go.”

Suddenly a hexagonal beam skips from the rock formation that makes up the arena and finds Steve’s character exactly where he’s been hiding. All Steve can do is just, look at the screen in absolute horror. And he’s surprised to realize that it’s not because he lost. No. It’s because he just… Wanted to talk to Iron Man a bit, maybe poke him a little more about how he knew about DeviantArt. 

Then he realizes something else.

“Hey! Those rocks shouldn’t reflect the beams like that!”

“Those are not rocks? Those are crystals,” Iron Man adds through the “You died!” screen.

“Crystals? Crystals! Well, could have fooled me. If I had never seen crystals before!”

“An entire art team worked on just this arena! They are glittery! They are crystals.”

“Yea, well that art team was a fucking shitty art team. They are as crystals as a pyrite blob is gold.”

“I- You know what? You design a glittery cave. Go on! I’ll just- Oh fuck-”

The “You died!” screen fades. Loading screen takes its place and in seconds, Steve is transported back to the lobby.

He sits there, looking at his computer screen, trying to understand what just happened. Then he gives up. Closes the game. Turns off his computer and slowly makes his way back to his bed.

Just when he is about to fall asleep, he realizes. Iron Man really did hit him with a hexagonal beam. He made something. Huh. Shit.

\---

Needless to say, he can’t sleep and he’s more than a little bit out of it throughout all his classes. Also his back definitely makes it known that the way he sits in front of the computer needs to change. 

He turns it around in his head and comes to two possible conclusions: Either Iron Man’s AI has precoded but unrevealed attacks and one of them just happened to fit what he asked for; or there is someone who handles real time upgrades to the Iron Man because he doesn’t want to believe there is someone who can actually play that well that controls Iron Man.

In the end, by the end of the school day all Steve can think of is going back home, back to his computer and registering to the waiting list for the Iron Man fight again. He can’t let go of it. He just… Can’t.

But there is another surprise waiting for him in the main menu when he boots the game up. Under all the regular items, there is a new one. And it reads, “Map Tools”.

Steve looks at the menu. The menu looks at Steve. And he thinks; okay, yeah, why not. 

The map maker that greets him is both overwhelming and exciting. There is basically everything. Or seems like it to Steve. He has never really dabbled in modding but then again this is more like a tool pack. And basic things, he can figure out after a little fiddling.

Different types of wall material, rocks, tiles, power-up crates, malleable obstacles… It’s a treat; both for his artistic side and gamer side. He recalls details from the one and only match he had with Iron Man. He remembers what he needed and when, he remembers what he could use to his advantage and what felt unnecessary. He leans back and gets to work.

In the end he comes up with an extremely personalized boss arena. He’s aware that for someone who plays differently, the gaming experience in this home baked arena would be pretty shitty. But hell, he hasn’t been given any instructions.

He has no idea why or what he's doing this for.

And Steve really has no idea what is going to happen when he clicks save either. He looks at the button with trepidation. He could just… Click back. Act like this never happened. But can he? Really? So, he clicks save. A little box tells him that his creation has been saved. Then the loading screen comes. 

Steve expects to find himself in the lobby again or a clean slate on the map editor but no. Where he is, is the arena he just created. And Iron Man is right there. He fumbles for his headset immediately, plugging in the USB at the fifth try.

“Cap? Caaap? You’re there right?”

“HEY!” Steve shouts into the headset, then winces, “Hey, yeah, I’m here I just- I just didn’t expect it to happen, uh, like this.”

“Ah- Yea,” Iron Man sounds… He almost sounds sheepish. Can an AI sound sheepish? He does. If he is an AI, at that. “Map tools weren’t really a thing, until yesterday, and then they were. So if the user interface is a bit shitty, yea, it’s because of that.” The in-game model claps his hands and jumps in place, “Music or no music?”

Steve still cannot really wrap his brain around it. He’s supposed to… What? Have a one versus one with Iron Man in an arena he designed just for the shits and giggles? Who’s giggles? Is this an official match? What if he wins?

Oh God. What if he wins? He designed the arena. What if he actually wins? Should he record it?

“Caaap?” 

“You’re not an AI.” 

That’s- That’s not exactly what Steve sets out to say. He’s not even sure what exactly solidifies the thought in his head; whether it’s the hexagonal beam, the human-like responses, the speech patterns… Or Iron Man waiting for him, calling him by a nickname.

Iron Man squeaks and sputters, “I mean- I could be? Sometimes maybe I am? Maybe I am right now? How is- I mean- Humans right? Am I even human? I survive on coffee and goji berries. Exclusively. Can a human do that?”

If Steve hadn’t been sold on his humanness before, now he is. And he’s not quite sure what to do with this information. Is there a person hired to direct Iron Man? Is there a team? This one seems to know Steve and the previous match. 

Suddenly Steve is full of questions and he doesn’t even know if he can ask them. He puts his head into his hands and tries to process everything and their implications, the game forgotten.

“Uh. Cap?”

Steve whips his head up, pointing at his screen, “You’re human!”

“Oh for fuck’s sake! Will you keep repeating that? Because I will need you to sign an NDA at this rate.”

“Oh my God! Language! Kids play this game,” Steve put his head right back into his hands, “Are always a human?”

Iron Man; or whomever is behind him, pauses for a moment, “I mean since I was born, yeah.”

“No I mean,” Steve snorts, runs a hand through his hair, then sits straighter, ready for questioning, “Are you- Is Iron Man always controlled by a human? You? Someone else?” He pauses; then continues, Can I even ask that?”

“Will you sign the NDA?”

“Yeah, what am I going to do with this information?”

They both sit in silence for a second as Steve realizes he can actually do many things with this information. Then the NDA appears in front of him. Steve clicks “I accept,” after barely skimming it.

“Great! I’ll answer one question for every ten gold orbs you get out of me. Now let’s start,” and then without waiting, Iron Man fires.

Steve sputters. Then throws himself into the game.

It’s not that hard to get the orbs. Steve racks them up pretty easily with the damage he’s doing. But now he is divided. Does he want to win? Or does he want the orbs? He shoots, “Okay, that’s thirty four. Is it always controlled by a human and is there only one of you?”

“Oh Cap, I’m definitely one of a kind,” Iron Man giggles. It’s so weird, hearing the sound, distorted and coming from that menacing, demonic figure. Then he continues, “Yeah, Iron Man is controlled by me. It’s my job. Kind of. Many things are automated, some things are not.”

He shoots and Steve rolls to dodge. Behind the rock is one of the crates he placed himself. He wonders how much this banter causes Iron Man to get distracted but also, he wants to hear what he’s thinking, genuinely.

Steve peeks around the rock to deal some more damage and gather more orbs, “How do you like the arena?”

“Unfair.”

Steve laughs at that, “You can literally have anything you want and it’s unfair that I get some crates? Come on! They don’t even respawn, I need to ration them.”

“To be fair, it’s very… You. I don’t think a rando would have as much luck in here.”

Steve blushes. Well, at least his character can’t. It’s- Nice. That Iron Man paid attention to his fighting style to realize that the layout was deliberate. It was nice to be seen like that.

“So, the main question is; why did you give me the map tools? Like- Don’t get me wrong, I’m very glad to be here, but like, I have seen people who’ve done much better and I’ve-” Steve shrugs, even though he knows Iron man can’t see it.

“Well, uh, a hunch? I don’t- I mean you were the first one to actually see through the act, you know? But also, that fucking glittery rock has been there for a very long time and let me tell you, Captain, a truly huge team worked on this game. After your indignancy about the glittery rock thing, I made- Uh- Contacted some teams about the previous fights and you know what, literally, nobody used that glittery reflective rock things. No one knew about those. You were right. That is shitty design.” 

Iron Man waves away a couple attacks Steve makes in the meantime, and continues babbling on, “So that was bad obviously. Someone is getting fired. I mean, not really, but still. Bad. Still, I- Well, I wondered what kind of things you’d come up with. I also felt a little bad about egging you on after you said you had scoliosis. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure you’re- Uh- You’re living with it. Do you have a good set up? Be honest. I’m ready to feel worse if you’re playing on a little laptop on your kitchen table right now.”

Steve is unable to determine what exactly he’s feeling. Accomplished because he realized something before about the game no one else did? Well, two things. The rocks and the Iron Man. Proud because he actually wanted to see what kind of designs he would come up with? Cared for because Iron Man remembered his condition? Important, at least to Iron Man, because he’s taken Steve’s comments to heart and actually had taken action about improving game design?

“Cap? Did I break you? Hello?”

“I- Yeah, I’m here.” Lies. Steve’s head is definitely at five different places. “I guess I’m a little… Surprised? I didn’t expect you to remember- I mean, I do have a good set up. Don’t worry about my back. And about the design thing, I was truly confused when you used that rock. I didn’t know it was that obscure though. By the way, I really didn’t think about that rock...” Steve trails off.

“Yeah, well, don’t really worry about it. I’m not- I mean, we’re not really expecting you to work for us. Unless you’d want to. I mean I’d need- We’d need your portfolio but it could be done. Anyway, I was just wondering what you’d come up with. Not for like, adding it into the game. But that can be done! If you want, I mean,” Iron Man sighs, “What I’m trying to say is that I genuinely didn’t use my brain when I added that map maker into your menu.”

Steve laughs. Working for Stark Industries. Yeah. Sure.

\---

Steve isn’t able to beat Iron Man. He likes to think he got close but still. The thing is, it’s easy to talk to Iron Man. Mostly because Iron Man likes the sound of his own voice but it’s somehow not bothersome and he just fills in the quiet. So Steve gets a lot of bits and pieces of information out of him. But it’s also very distracting when it comes to fighting against him.

He’s been in the development team, since the beginning of the game. He loves MMORPGs and kind of hates FPS games, which is a sentiment Steve can actually get behind. He’s actually not that good at playing, or so he says, which Steve is surprised to hear. But he’s good at coding on the go and strategizing. And he waves Steve away when he tells Iron Man being able to modify code like that on the go is more impressive than being able to play good. 

He also learns that Iron Man doesn’t really have that much free time and has many other responsibilities and that’s why many things are automated even though he exists. Though he gives away that whatever is controlling Iron Man when his human is not around is much better than any other regular AI.

So Steve loses, but also, he gets a date. From Iron Man. And it makes him feel weird to call it a date because what he has is a day and an hour, which is a date. Technically. But it’s not a- A romantic date. They will just like, meet to talk and try to kill each other again. Which sounds ridiculous. But it’s a date. Not like that. But still… 

Steve’s excited. And it shows, probably. Especially when he’s at school.

At least, one of the pros of teaching teenagers is that he can actually bounce his game mechanics ideas off of them and they will deliver. He gives his sophomores a list of features, totally stolen from The Avengers game and tells them that they can only choose three to design their own character. For seniors, he brings out the map making ideas and that distracts them enough that they don’t realize he’s also distracted.

Overall, they are productive classes but it definitely doesn’t help him get the looming meeting out of his mind. It’s just hard for Steve to reconcile the idea of Iron Man, the in-game character with Iron Man, the Stark Industries employee who has several other work obligations.

But it feels good, in some odd way, to experience Iron Man being an actual person because, well, because he makes Steve feel seen. He remembers things Steve told him, brings them back and asks about them. It feels like he cares. For some reason Steve can't quite comprehend that he has caught the eye, or well, ear of Iron Man and now they talk about game design and try to virtually stab each other.

Unfortunately, Iron Man says very little for someone who likes the sound of his own voice. Steve can’t really blame him, what Iron Man is doing is probably very illegal and could cost him his job. One part of Steve does wonder how come no one has realized that Iron Man is spending a little too much time doing something that’s clearly not working while he’s still on the job he was hired to do. 

Steve turns it around in his head. Maybe Iron Man is a much higher level employee, or maybe he is just… Too good at his job. Or maybe he just doesn’t care.

With how little he actually talks about himself, it turns into a game of itself for Steve. His own little side quest: Get Iron Man talking. 

\--

Of all things, they actually end up arguing about the work Steve is doing for the Avengers. And they are not even past the inventory page yet. The thing is, Steve doesn’t want to argue with Iron Man; but the pushy boss-character-man just makes it so hard to stay calm. 

“All I’m saying is Cap, normally people do want to get paid for stuff like this. I’m just saying.”

Steve rubs his temples, he will not get into a verbal argument with a game character, he just refuses to, “Have you ever heard of Nexus Mods? Alpha testing? Writing on forums so that things will get patched?”

“You can’t mod an online game-”

“Not the point at all,” Steve cuts him off, “ the point is, people do stuff for the games they like for free all the time, people do much more than I do, why should I-”

“Because I think you should.”

“How does that mean anything?” Welp, too late to take that back now. 

After a beat of silence, Iron Man speaks, “I will act like I didn’t hear that very hurtful thing you just said.”

Steve buries his face in his hands even though Iron Man can’t see it, “Please do.”

“I’m just saying,” Iron Man presses on, “at some point, the game will need fresh ideas Cap. This is an online game, that’s how it works. Avengers will need innovation in the design department, and if it’s going to come from someone who can actually understand game strategies besides art stuff, I think people would be, you know, interested.”

Steve scrolls his inventory up and down, mulling about what Iron Man said, “Do you think I should take Skrull Runes or Heimdall’s Hand?” 

“Are you asking me? I’m going to try to kill you, I cannot be trusted. Take the Hand, Runes are heavy.”

“But the +4 shield,” Steve rolled his shoulders, “How do you know people would be interested in, like, things I make? Like I’m sure Stark Industries gets like, hundreds of portfolios every week.”

“I cannot be sure if you’re underestimating yourself or overestimating the entire world. Also, please, take the Hand and let’s roll, better drop won’t materialize in your inventory the more you scroll.”

Steve takes the Runes, “I won’t argue with you since you’re clearly delusional about the sheer number of more talented people out there but okay, still, how do you know what the art team is looking for?”

“Because I am- Ugh- Involved? In the process of making these maps and arenas and such?”

“Hm,” Steve says, the questioning lilt in Iron Man’s voice doesn’t give him much confidence. Still, his character spawns dutifully in the bossfight arena.

“No! I’m serious! I- Ugh. The thing is, since I control the last boss it’s- Well, it’s best that I oversee how people level up to come to me you know. Like, it’s not impossible to beat me. Just, really really hard and needs some more problem solving materials rather than levelling up than people realize so, yeah, I do oversee some of the design process.”

“Did you just give me the biggest tip ever or am I hearing things?”

“I- OH SHIT! You little- Well, I said what I said Cap, bring it on!”

Steve laughed.

\--

Steve’s determined excitement lasts all of five minutes when he sits down with his drawings and designs. He hasn’t made a portfolio in years. The last time he had prepared one was when he was applying as a teacher and even then, they hadn’t really looked at the works in it, just his credentials. 

Now, after sitting on the floor for God knows how many hours, surrounded by everything he has ever made, Steve is even less sure than he was when Iron Man first hinted at sending in a portfolio. 

His character design stuff left from the art school days don’t really fit The Avengers’ style or aesthetic. There are some unrelated videogame-y stuff he has done as personal projects but they just feel… Uninspired. 

Some of his fantasy landscape studies are suitable. He sets them aside. There are some sketches he did as examples at school recently, when he had given his students the character and map creation prompts; those, he can flesh out. He sets them aside as well.

He goes all the way back to his high school sketches. He gets lost browsing through things he couldn’t finish before his surgery, back when his scoliosis was giving him more trouble. He’s surprised to see he still feels an interest, looking through his sketches of elven archers that are definitely not Legolas but brunette.

And then there are the digital drawings he has made in the recent year. Those are probably in worse disarray somewhere in his computer, named as kjgkfjg.png and the like. 

And of course, the maps. 

Steve weirds himself out with how quickly he goes from playing The Avengers for four hours a day to building maps for it for four hours a day. In fact, since he walked through the Iron Man’s bossfight arena doors, he’s been the only one he played against. And he enjoys it, he does, but it also scares him a little.

The thing is, Steve can’t really be sure if this is a passing fancy, fed by holding the attention of someone else or if it’s something he would really like to do indefinitely. He loves environment design and he loves gaming too, but he’s worried that his favorite pastime activity will become a burden, once it gets official and there is a deadline on it.

On the other hand, Iron Man seems… He seems genuinely interested in the things Steve comes up with. He brings feedback from other fights, gives his opinions about the different area types in the game, is willing to “trial and error” stuff that Steve and him throw together on a whim.

There is also the fact that Iron Man is a real person who works at Stark Industries and if Steve also worked at Stark Industries and worked on environment design, he would probably become one of those art department people whom Iron Man is in touch with.

Which is an exhilarating thought as it is frightening.

Because Iron Man seems interested in Steve, but also, that could mean anything. And that’s the sad thing, that Iron Man is probably just a thoughtful guy who genuinely saw something in Steve’s gameplay style and doesn’t mind becoming friends. Kind of friends. Doesn’t mean he would be interested like that.

Steve looks at all the art he spread around his living room floor and sighs. He probably won’t even make it to a preliminary interview. So there is no need for him to get anyone else up in arms about his portfolio, right? Right. Least of all Iron Man.

\--

They get out of the boss arena for the first time, to fuck around in the game. It’s an experience.

Iron Man’s character in the game, his actual playing character, is called “DiscountIronGuy”. He wears game gear that somehow both looks like the Iron Man boss but also like how Iron Man would look if he was dressing from the fantasy equivalent of Goodwill. 

The idea comes from Iron Man who wants to include more world elements into his boss arena but also, he tells Steve in the privacy of the boss arena chat, that there is a new boss they are working on that will come with the season pass and that one will have three or four phases simulating in-game areas.

He wants Steve’s opinion. Well, TheCaptain’s opinion. Same thing.

They have Discord set up. He has his Discord, oh God, Steve has IronMan’s actual Discord. And hearing Iron Man’s voice, out of the game, without the in-game modulators is weird at first. He doesn’t sound like how Steve imagined he would. He sounds just as cocky as his character does. And he sounds human, normal. Steve thinks he likes that voice.

Funnily enough, once they are basically in-game civilians, going around beside TheCaptain is what gives Iron Man, oh sorry, DiscountIronGuy, enough credibility. Even funnier, apparently Iron Man hadn’t realized just how well known Steve’s handle is. But that doesn’t save them from the in-game chat.

“OMG CAPTIAN!!!”

“hewwooo!!”

“ong where did u meet????”

“r u doing quests rn, can i join”

“Dude,” Iron Man’s voice is incredulous in his ear, “You’re famous. Like, actually famous.”

“It’s called being a Big Name Player and no, I am not famous; the nickname is.”

“Cap, that’s literally the same thing. You are literally The Captain.”

“You knew that,” Steve has no idea what Iron Man truly means or why he is so surprised but on the other hand, maybe he understands a little. A lot of other people would capitalize on such fame. “Well, you know, I like the anonymity of it. I could be just… Anyone. And that makes me, uh, relatable? I guess?”

Iron Man laughs.

“But really,” Steve continues, “I didn’t have many friends growing up. Well, I basically just had one single friend. We’re still friends. It’s cool. But I also like being able to jump into the game and chat with people who just know my gaming persona. And that’s… Freeing, I guess. Oh look! A Skrull basecamp, I’m sure we can steamroll it.”

“Sure, let’s roll,” Iron Man puts up a shielding spell around them, “But I- I know what you mean, Cap. Real world selves come with baggage.”

“And an address.”

“What?” Iron Man does the first attack. Skrulls do their thing and all turn into Steve’s and Iron Man’s character but their shield allows them to just blast off area damages without worrying about friendly fire. They get all the Skrulls down to half of their health bar in three seconds and their mirroring spells break.

“I mean like,” Steve does a couple solo attacks by tapping his mouse, “People can find out where you live and stuff. Doxxing happens. It’s just… There are too many things that could go wrong with being a public figure.”

“Ugh, tell me about it.”

“Seriously?” Now that was surprising. 

“I mean,” Iron Man clears his throat, “You don’t have to be a person to get weird stuff. You should see some of the,” he emphasizes, “fan mail that we receive around here.”

Steve laughs, “People still send snail mail?” They fell the entire Skrull band between the two of them. A little experience points marker pops up on Steve’s screen.

“Yeah, some, though to be fair, the snail mail is mostly genuine fan mail. Like, trolls don’t really go that far to troll. But emails and social media? Weird. Just, weird Cap. We have a group channel where our social media guys share the funniest or weirdest ones. Some of them straight up make you question what they were thinking when sending that.”

They travel around the map. TheCaptain’s fame travels with them. Iron Man keeps poking him about it and it’s good. It’s, well, it’s just like playing with an actual friend. They take some notes about what kind of health items, drops and environmental clues could be used in the upcoming boss. Iron Man likes Steve’s idea that back to back phases should be from wildly different but previously traversed areas, so that it will be both challenging and not boring.

And it’s good. It makes Steve ache a little because he would like to have this outside of the game too. He cannot be sure if he’s projecting his feelings onto Iron Man but he feels like Iron Man is having fun. They do just stand around, idle, and talk about nothing.

Steve tells him about his kids, which he then corrects to students because Iron Man thinks he actually had children. Iron Man tells him about how his boss, whom he calls “the boss lady,” is riding his ass about paperwork and that he should be doing it but God, he hates doing it. But he will anyway.

As they say their goodbyes over the audio channel, Steve thinks about the thick portfolio that’s probably still in the mail somewhere in New York and hopes, just hopes really hard.

\--

He gets the email when still in school and he has to physically stop himself from screaming by putting both his hands over his mouth. His phone burns a hole in his pocket. 

The next class he enters, one of his students goes, “Oh my God, Sir, are you getting married?” Because he’s beaming that much.

It’s a Wednesday. They are asking him if he can make it Saturday morning (because they remembered that he’s a teacher), but are open to rescheduling in work days. Steve’s hands shake as he writes the email back at home, saying that yes, he can come on Saturday. 

The days refuse to pass. Thursday is a blur. He’s at the school but his mind is elsewhere. Even Steve doesn’t know where. He forgets the graded designs from his students at home and just tells them everyone got an A. Because why not. He’s the teacher, he can do whatever he wants and then goes on a tangent about how art is about expressing yourself and that part cannot be graded.

He will still grade their technique, though. They can’t run away from that.

He doesn’t have any classes on Friday. And that’s just even worse. There is nothing to take his mind off of the upcoming interview. He doesn’t even want to look at the desktop icon of The Avengers. So he just makes tea, sits in trepidation while it gets cold. Then makes another tea. Then makes another tea.

Saturday morning is the worst, most horrible time Steve has had in years. His clothes feel awkward on him, even though he logically knows that they look just like how they do any other day. He looks exceptionally worse in the mirror.

And oh, he burns his hand while trying to make coffee and then just give up on breakfast altogether. At least it’s his left hand, which technically can stay hidden the entire time if needed.

The burn gets redder and redder while he’s on the train and starts to throb in a very distracting way. Surely, a normal person would just email or call in the front desk, explain the situation and ask to reschedule. But at that moment, Steve’s mind is zeroed in on the possibilities and he’s definitely not thinking right either.

The Stark building is imposing. There is no other way to describe it. The security guard helps him scan the barcode that came with his confirmation email at the turnstiles and points him to the reception.

He shows his email to the receptionist and explains as she politely listens before taking over.

“Yes Mr, Rogers, we were waiting for you. Mr. Stark is ready to see you, if you please take the elevator-”

Who?

“Mr. Rogers?”

Steve turns to find a tall, ginger woman in an impeccable white suit waiting, “Yes, ma’am?”

“My name is Pepper Potts, I’ll take you up, the elevator is- A little confusing.”

Steve follows after her and thinks, clearly, there must be something wrong. Surely, they must have confused him with someone else. Steve Rogers isn’t an entirely unique name. It would just be Steve’s luck if another Steve Rogers had applied for a higher positioned job. He has been confused with people named Rodgers before.

Thinking of it, it is a bit weird for them to call him to the main tower for an art job interview. Wouldn’t Stark Industries have a separate studio building for the gaming side of the things?

“Uh- Ms. Potts, this is about the art department still, right? I wouldn’t want to-”

“Yes, Mr. Rogers, it is indeed about the art department.”

Well, he can’t really argue with that. He’s confused though. Very confused.

They enter the elevator. And then the elevator speaks, “Miss. Potts, Mr. Rogers; to the penthouse, I assume?”

“No Jarvis, 89th floor please.”

The elevator knows him. Who the hell do they think he is?

Just when he’s about to open his mouth, he gets a direct message on Discord. It’s from the one and only Iron Man. “Please don’t freak out,” it reads.

Steve is suddenly, extremely furious. Who the hell that fucker thinks he is? Steve didn’t tell him about his application for a reason. Does he think he can just meddle with Steve’s business? Does he think he’s helping?

Steve is pissed. 

Someone helping you get a job when you asked for help is one thing. Thinking you got somewhere on your own merit and discovering it’s all been a lie is something else entirely. And it’s just, Steve cannot stand dishonesty. He cannot stand unwanted favours. He cannot stand-

Miss. Potts leans towards him as the elevator slows down, “Before you start blaming people, I just want you to know I did tell him this was a bad idea. He rarely listens.”

Oh so everyone is in on it. Steve will walk in there and Steve will give that man a piece of his mind because-

The elevator doors open and Tony Stark is standing there, somehow managing to seem awkward in a tailored suit and opens his arms to the sides, “Yay! It’s me! Please don’t start throwing things at me, I can explain. I mean, you can throw things at me. Been there, done that. Or it’s been done to me. But at least let me explain first. Then start throwing. Not the salt lamp though. That’s Pepper’s but everything else is fair game.”

That voice is not what Steve expects. He stands there, slack hand pointing at Tony Stark, doing his best beached fish impression.

“The truth is, I am Iron Man.”

“Huh,” says Steve, because he is a smart individual who can process information.

“And, well, uh- I’m Tony,” he sticks out his hand.

“Steve.”

Tony shakes Steve’s hand and also his entire world because… What does this even mean?

“I don’t want you to, uh, get the wrong impression with this. I really do give the last go on the art and design stuff, I- I am this game. I’m in this game. This has been- Well, you probably know that part, sorry. The thing is, the art department really liked your portfolio and they sent it to me with all the others because well, we are looking for a level designer and an environment designer. And I just recognized one of the arenas we had designed and it just looked good in your hand and I-”

“You’re Iron Man,” Steve, after shaking hands, is still pointing at him with his right hand.

“Uh, yes Cap. Did the last monologue go through? Should I rewind?”

“My name is Steve.”

“Well, are you going to call me Tony?”

“No, I’m going to call you Tin Can.” Steve closes his mouth so quickly that his teeth hurt.

They look at each other for a moment, then Iron Man, well, Tony breaks down laughing, which in turn makes Steve laugh. Maybe it’s a bit of a manic laugh on both of their parts but it is a laugh nevertheless and it breaks the ice.

“You’re really Iron Man, oh God,” Steve wipes at his eyes, “How do you even find the time?”

“Well, I make it,” Tony runs a hand through his hair, “I quit drinking a while ago, like, completely cold turkey, you cannot imagine how much of a businessman’s life is just standing around and drinking when there are hundreds of other people doing the business part for you. Coffee?”

“Sure.”

It’s weird. But in a good way. Steve gets all the answers he couldn't pry out of Iron Man from Tony. And Tony periodically berates himself about talking too much about himself but it’s clear he wants to talk. More than that, it’s clear he wants to talk without being judged and if there is something Steve can do, it’s that.

It’s also a mess. Tony realizes the burn on his hand as they sit down to actually drink the coffee. He wants to patch it up but they soon realize that he knows nothing about how to treat a burn despite claiming to have burned his hands countless times. 

That somehow gives Steve less confidence but he is saved by the bodiless elevator voice, whom he learns is Jarvis, who suggests that they search the names of the eight different balms they have laying around on the internet.

Steve learns it’s Jarvis who controls Iron Man when Tony cannot. They talk about the intricacies of coding something like Jarvis. Or Tony talks about it and Steve listens. They talk about art. They talk about how much Tony doesn’t get art. Steve goes on a lecture about how much art means for games. And it’s good.

“This was fun,” says Tony. The setting sun paints them both gold. “You’re hired!”

They keep on sitting at the table. It’s been hours and Steve feels like neither of them want to leave. 

This time he stands up to make yet another coffee.

\---

One (1) Bonus Scene, Some Years Later: 

“Oh my God, Steve, they will ask us how we met!”

“Well, I started working here,” Steve goes over the statement Miss Potts prepared for them, for the millionth time, “After we started working together, we got close.”

“They will write that I seduced my employee.”

“They could very easily write that I seduced my boss and frankly, I don’t care about either.” 

Tony doesn’t seem mollified by that. And frankly, it’s not like him to be so nervous about interviews. Not outwardly, at least.

Steve sighs, “Tony, the main topic is supposed to be the new accessibility controllers. Our relationship is literally the secondary topic here.”

“You don’t know tabloids.”

“They don’t know me and how I will go on a tangent when it comes to accessibility in gaming, come on.”

“If this goes wrong, do you think we can blame Pepper?”

“Tony.”

“She did write the statement.”

“I don’t think it works that way sweetheart,” Steve pulls Tony towards the elevator. If it’s left to him, they will never be leaving this room ever again. 

It will be fine, he thinks to himself. He is a high school teacher, he has the ability to talk over anyone and anything. And does he love talking about accessibility anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Edit: Honorable mention to the website: [Can I play that?](https://caniplaythat.com/)
> 
> I love games. I built my career on games. And I am extremely into being able to share the games I enjoy with everyone else. And I mean literally everyone else. I don't have any physical disabilities that stop me from playing games. I do have though, an anxiety disorder that continuously makes me think about how many of my hobbies rely on fine motor skills. And I can do them; I mean, I do have full control of both my hands. For now. That could change any moment though. 
> 
> Does that sound omnious? That's because you know, even if you don't actively think about it in your daily life, that the world is not made for people with disabilities. But it could be. And there are people who work to make that a reality. They are cool people. Hope to be actively one of them someday.


End file.
